Tool-assisted movies (40)

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Published on 7/11/2023
Metal Head is a mecha 3D shooter that was released exclusively for the Sega Genesis 32X add-on. It is an arcade-style shooter that can be played in either first-person or third-person mode. The story has you playing as a mecha pilot in the Federation Armed Forces, where your objective is to take down terrorists and warmongers from taking over various countries using mech robots known as "Metal Heads". As the game progresses, you can upgrade your Metal Head's weapons and capabilities to make taking down your ferocious enemies easier.
In this run, Darkman425 succeeds in putting down the terrorists and allows the World Federation to militarize all the liberated countries in record time.

Note: The popping sounds and other audio glitches are due to inaccurate emulation bugs.
Game:
Metal Head

Genres:
Shooter
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.9.1

Published on 7/31/2023
Xanthiom is an Atari 2600 homebrew game developed by Mathan Games in 2023. The player controls Lieutenant Grisham, on a mission to rid the threats to the galaxy on the planet Planet Coati 5. This homebrew is very much a take on what the original NES Metroid would be like on the Atari 2600 with the limitations therein.
Darkman425 and nymx save the galaxy whilst collecting every item in the game.

Published on 7/8/2022
Slide Boy in Maze Land is a homebrew puzzle game for the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800. You play as Slide Boy, who can only slide in one direction and cannot stop until he hits a wall. The goal of each level is to get to the exit while avoiding all hazards.
Darkman425 plays on the Normal difficulty and gets through all 30 rooms as fast as possible.
You can get the game here. There is also a run for the Atari 2600 version for those interested.
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.8

Published on 7/8/2023
Fraction Fever is a math-focused educational game for various systems such as the Apple II, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum. You play as a guy on a pogo stick trying to climb the floors, and the way to do that is to pick the floor tile with the pictogram that best matches the numerical fraction shown at the top of the screen. Pick the wrong one and the tile collapses, causing you to fall down one floor. As you climb the floors, the pictograms start to become more visually complicated to make it harder to pick the right one.
Here, Darkman425 completes a full loop of the game in record time, which requires reaching and completing floor 20.
Game:
Fraction Fever

Genres:
Educational
Game Version:
Fraction Fever.dsk
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.9.1

Published on 5/18/2023
Quartet is a side-scrolling run-and-gun game that was initially developed by Sega as an arcade game and later ported to systems such as the Sega Master System and the ZX Spectrum. In the arcade version, up to four players can choose a character of their choice to clear various space bases that are filled with aliens and other moving hazards and get to the exit.
Watch Darkman425 as he chooses the character Mary and clears all 32 unique levels in record time, bunnyhopping frequently throughout.

Warning: This game contains flickering lights that may prove discomforting to photosensitive viewers.
Game:
Quartet

Genres:
Shooter
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.9

Published on 5/7/2023
Shackled is a game by Data East released on arcades in 1986. Gameplay is similar to Gauntlet, however, a key difference is that saving prisoners lets the player swap between different shot types outside of the standard dagger.
Darkman425, however, uses a hidden exit on the first floor that's present in this particular version of the game to get to the credits in record time.
Game:
Shackled

Genres:
Action
Game Version:
shackled.zip
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.9

Published on 10/5/2023
2010: The Graphic Action Game is a 1984 ColecoVision puzzle game. It is based off the movie 2010: The Year We Made Contact, a sequel to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In this game, you are an astronaut trying to repair the computer systems of the Discovery ship before it crashes into one of Jupiter's moons. The player must find paths to each parts of the Discovery that need repairs, while avoiding the malicious MMF sparks that try to hinder the repair process with their bizarrely aggressive behavior.
Darkman425 is able to repair the Discovery system and avoid disaster in record time.

Published on 6/15/2023
Magnetica, also known as Shunkan Puzz Loop in Japan and Actionloop in Europe, is a puzzle game that serves as a sequel to the 1998 arcade game Puzz Loop. It plays similarly to Zuma, where the goal is to clear a line of marbles by shooting marbles at other marbles in the line with matching colors. You can also collect powerups that attach to the marbles, which can make it easier and/or quicker to clear each level.
In this run, reirrab and Darkman425 play "Puzzle Mode", known in the Japanese version as "Checkmate Mode", and clear all 60 puzzles as fast as possible.
Game:
Magnetica

Genres:
Puzzle
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.8

Published on 9/30/2023
Touch Detective (known as Mystery Detective in Europe and Osawari Tantei: Ozawa Rina (おさわり探偵 小沢里奈)) is an adventure game developed by BeeWorks and published by Atlus (505 Games in Europe and Success Corporation in Japan) for the Nintendo DS in 2006. It follows the story of Mackenzie, who sets herself on solving 4 different cases to solve in order to join the Great Detective Society. She also maintains a Touch List, keeping track of interesting things she touches throughout.
Darkman425 completes the 4 cases in record time.
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.9.1

Published on 12/4/2022
Art Style: PiCTOBiTS, known as Art Style: PiCOPiCT in Europe and Japan and Art Style: PiCTOPiCT in Australia, is part of the DSiWare and WiiWare line of Art Style games. This is a puzzle game developed by Skip Ltd., the Chibi-Robo! devs, where the goal is to match colored bits in rectangles of at least 4 bits in size.
Darkman425 clears all 15 stages in a record total in-game time of 3:37.76.

Published on 5/3/2022
Final Fantasy Legend II (Sa・Ga2 秘宝伝説, Sa・Ga2 - The Treasure Legend) is a role-playing game developed by Square and is the second game in the SaGa series. You take on the role of one of eight different characters of varying race and gender who leaves on a journey to find his or her lost father and recover the Magi, pieces of a magical statue of the goddess Isis.
Unlike the standard run, Darkman425 opts to skip over half the game through careful usage of the poison bug and a well-timed game reset to overwrite the desired RAM values and get the desired ending quicker than intended.

Published on 4/12/2023
Ottos Ottifanten: Baby Brunos Alptraum is a puzzle platformer developed by Bit Managers and published by Infogrames in 1998. Based on characters created by a German comedian, Otto Waalkes, its gameplay concept originated in The Adventures of Pinocchio; however, Infogrames shelved it, as it wasn't based on a known license. When the Ottifanten license was acquired, the developers reworked the original Pinocchio prototype in such a way that both play very differently.
Darkman425 completes the game in record time.

Published on 12/25/2021
The Final Fantasy Legend, also known as Makai Toushi SaGa in Japan, is a Game Boy RPG. It is the first entry in the long running SaGa series and has a lot of strange and esoteric mechanics. You can form a team of up to four party members consisting of humans, mutants, and monsters. Each character type gets stronger by wildly different means.
Darkman425 completes the game in record time by getting the 4 spheres and defeating Ashura and the Creator. Please read the author's comments for more details.
We also have a movie that uses a warp glitch that skips the vast majority of the game.
You can watch this movie being played back on real console here.

Published on 9/10/2022
Game & Watch Gallery 4 is the 4th installment of the Game & Watch Gallery series, a collection of classic LCD screen games released by Nintendo long before the days of the NES. It features modern remakes of the classic games as well as the ability to play the old versions.
If the player earns enough stars, they can unlock other classic games in the gallery, one of these includes a Game & Watch for Zelda. In this game the player must defeat enemies and defeat a dragon, each time gaining a new piece of the triforce.
Darkman425 gets the Triforce and saves Zelda in record time.

Published on 3/7/2023
Mega Man Zero 3 is the third game in the Mega Man Zero series. It features mostly the same gameplay as before, but with a different Cyber Elf system, customizable armor, and new Secret Disks, which can be analyzed for information about the series, enemies, items, and the characters. The story takes place two months after Mega Man Zero 2 when a resurrected Copy-X suddenly appears from space and takes over Neo-Arcadia once again with his reviver Dr. Weil at his side. It is up to Zero, Ciel, and friends to get to the ever-dangerous Dark Elf before Dr. Weil and the mysterious Omega does.
For this run, Darkman425 opts to use only the Z-Buster, using the Z-Saber in certain levels when the game forces him to. He also aims for a maximum mission score for every mission in the game, which requires completing every objective and meeting all the kill quotas, all while not taking any damage. He does this as fast as possible with lots of RNG manipulation involved. For more details on how this run was done and the mechanics involved, you can read the author's notes.

Published on 5/31/2022
Pocky & Rocky with Becky, known in Japan as Kiki Kaikai Advance (奇々怪界あどばんす), is a shoot em' up that involves two shrine maidens and a tanuki teaming up to fight off a powerful demon that threatens the world. The last installment in the Pocky & Rocky (Kiki Kaikai, 奇々怪界) series until Pocky & Rocky Reshrined (Kiki Kaikai: Kuro Manto no Nazo, 奇々怪界 黒マントの謎) in 2022, this game implements a new ranking system that affects how hard the bosses will be when you encounter them.
Darkman425 uses the American version as it allows him to take damage to save time. chooses Becky (Miki, 美紀) for her superior shot type, and manipulates the AI patterns and the ranking system in order to beat the game in record time.

Published on 7/16/2023
Powerpig is a homebrew GBA platforming game developed by Genecyst for the NeoFlash compo 2013. One day, Powerpig is approached by his ghost grandpig who gives him a gravity gun, and that he can use it however he wants. So he used it accordingly.
Darkman425 and Alyosha improve the previous movie by 52.76 seconds, thanks to a glitch where the next level starts immediately if the previous level was finished at a specific point.

Game:
Powerpig

Genres:
Platformer
Homebrew
Game Version:
powerpig.gba
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
GBAHawk v1.3

Published on 7/10/2022
Simple 2960 Tomodachi Series Vol. 3: The Itsudemo Puzzle - Massugu Soroeru Straws (SIMPLE2960ともだちシリーズ Vol.3 THE いつでもパズル まっすぐ揃えてストローズ) is a GBA puzzle game that's part of the Simple 2960 Tomodachi line of games published by D3 Publisher and developed by BeeWorks. In the main game mode, Straw the apprentice witch must align the stars in order to pass her graduation exam.
Darkman425 reaches the score necessary for Straw to pass her graduation exam in record time.

Published on 9/5/2022
Game & Watch Gallery 2 is the 2nd compilation game of classic Game & Watch LCD screen games. It features 6 classic games, with the ability to play both the classic version as well as a modern remake featuring Mario characters.
For every 200 points earned in each game, the player earns a star (up to 5 per game). In order to unlock the credits to the game, the player must earn 50 stars. Darkman425 earns these 50 stars by playing through the fastest games to earn stars in record time.
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.8

Published on 4/26/2022
From Homestar Runner comes Trogday Micro Game, starring Trogdor the Burninator. It's his 19th Trogday, and how does he celebrate? By burninating the village, of course! The goal in this very short game is to squish all the peasants while avoiding all the knights before facing off against Kerrek, who stands for everything peasantry. In this run, Darkman425 does exactly that in record time.
You can play the game here.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.
Game Version:
Trogday2022.gb
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.7

Published on 6/14/2023
Mega Man: The Sequel Wars is a currently in-progress compilation of fan remakes of Mega Man 4, 5, and 6 for the Sega Genesis and serves as an unofficial sequel to Mega Man: The Wily Wars. It expands on what The Wily Wars offers by adding additional characters to play as (Proto Man and Roll), more graphical effects that can be turned off, and a couple of neat Easter eggs that are nods to glitches that can be done in the original NES games.
In this run, Darkman425 plays the currently available Mega Man 4 portion of the game and chooses Roll for her higher damage output — despite her main weapon being a broom — and faster air movement to beat the game in record time.
You can get the game here.

Published on 2/25/2022
Mega Man: The Wily Wars is a collection of the first three NES Mega Man titles with enhanced graphics and sound. Along with the original games is the short game "Wily Tower", where special bosses exclusive to this game can be fought with your choice of any weapon from the first three games.
Darkman425 completes all games, including the exclusive “Wily Tower”, without using the Zip glitch.

Published on 6/22/2022
Thunder Force II for the Sega Genesis is a port of the Sharp X68000 game of the same name. It is both a side-scrolling shoot 'em up and a top-down shoot 'em up all in one. Compared to the X68000 version, the Genesis version cut some levels out and has some graphical downgrades, but features almost no lag.
The story of the game involves the ORN Empire, led by the rogue AI named Khaos, invading and pillaging planets that are part of the Galaxy Federation. In response, the Federation sends the ship Fire LEO-02 "Exceliza" to combat the ORN Empire and take down Khaos.
In this run, Darkman425 plays around with the side-scrolling stages and finds the quickest ways to beat the top-down stages. For details on the techniques used and how the levels were tackled, you can read the author's notes.

Published on 9/8/2023
GG Aleste II (GGアレスタII), also known as Power Strike II in Europe (not to be confused with the game of the same name for the Sega Master System), is a space shoot 'em up for the Sega Game Gear. The story takes place in the far future, where Earth is now protected by a number of armored defensive satellites. An unknown object the size of the moon has attached itself to one of these satellites and has taken control of it. Space pilot Alice Waizen was testing a prototype GG Aleste II ship when she is alerted about the alien threat and is tasked to stop it.
In this run, Darkman425 saves the Earth from possible destruction as fast as possible while also managing game lag at the same time.

Published on 6/29/2023
Bump 'n' Jump, also known in Japan as Burnin' Rubber (バーニンラバー), is a combat racing game that initially released for the arcades and was later ported to the Intellivision, Atari 2600, and NES. On a perilous road filled with cars and dump trucks out to ruin your day, your goal is to get to the finish line without losing all of your lives. Thankfully, to make things easier, you can bump cars to destroy them or to get a small speed boost, Trucks can't be bumped, sadly. The "Jump" part comes from having to jump rivers that have unfinished bridges.
Darkman425 here completes all 32 unique tracks in the game as fast as possible, with a good amount of RNG manipulation done to make fewer trucks spawn and for more ideal car layouts.
Game:
Bump 'n' Jump

Genres:
Action
Racing
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.9.1

Published on 9/26/2022
The Fairyland Story is a platforming game that was originally developed as an arcade game and later got ports for the MSX and X68000. It is similar to fellow Taito arcade Bubble Bobble in that you have to defeat all the enemies in each room in order to progress. Here, you play as a witch named Ptolemy, who can transform enemies into cakes that she can squish or push off platforms to crush other enemies with. Her end goal to defeat the dragon Dracolisk and get back the magic gem it stole.
Darkman425 decides to forgo using any warps in this run in favor of showcasing every level the game has to offer as quickly as possible, manipulating the RNG or enemy AI whenever necessary.
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.8

Published on 10/31/2023
Mario Artist: Polygon Studio is an entry in the Mario Artist series of games that were created for the short-lived Nintendo 64DD. In this game, with a bunch of prefabricated polygon parts, you can create models that you can use in three game modes, "Experimental World", "Sound Bomber", and "Go-Go-Park". "Experimental World" has you use your model to explore and collect new parts. "Sound Bomber" has eight microgames that you play using your model and serves as a precursor to the WarioWare series. And "Go-Go-Park" is a minigame where you wind up your model and have it race and reach a designated finish line without going over a bridge.
Darkman425 in this run decides to play the "Go-Go-Park" mode and competes all three stages as fast as possible, ending input early in the third stage as well.
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.9.1

Published on 7/22/2022
Alwa's Awakening: The 8-Bit Edition is an official NES demake of the PC game Alwa's Awakening that was co-developed by the developers of the original game. While Alwa's Awakening was a throwback to the 8-bit era of video games with its retro-esque gameplay and graphics, the NES version is a full-on port to an 8-bit video game console. And unlike most demakes, this version retains most of the levels of the PC version along with adding exclusive content.
Darkman425 forgoes the use of screen wrapping and out of bounds glitches in this run that would save over 20 minutes of game time in favor of playing the the game mostly inbounds. Other glitches are still used to save time along with soft resets. You can read the author's notes for more details.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 3/9/2024
Super Mario World for the NES is a bootleg port of the video game of the same name by Hummer Team, a Taiwanese pirate game developer. It is their attempt at porting a game that was originally for the SNES and making it fit the technical constraints of the NES. The result is what can be expected from a bootleg video game. Levels from the original game are missing, the physics are messed up, and gameplay mechanics such as warps were not implemented. The result is a rather linear game that doesn't play like the original Super Mario World very much.
Darkman425 here tackles this rather well-known NES bootleg and beats it as fast as possible.
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.9.1

Published on 7/6/2022
The Three Stooges can be described as a board game where you play various minigames, often aiming to collect as many items or correct answers as possible. The plot of the game involves Moe, Larry, and Curly trying to raise enough money to make sure the local orphanage doesn't get taken away by the big bank.
Darkman425 in this run chooses the most optimal sequence of games to gain the minimum amount of money needed for the best ending, $20,000, and finish in record time.
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.8

Published on 8/18/2022
Shinobi is an action hack-n-slash game created by Sega. It recieved many ports including one for the PC Engine, developed by Azmik. You control a shinobi, Joe Musashi, who must battle his way through each level in search of hostages which must be rescued. You have shurikens, kicks and punches to defend yourself with, as well as powerful ninja magic which can clear the screen of enemies in one go.
Each level is broken down into smaller scenes, and hostages are guarded by big blokes who throw swords. Watch out for gun-toting enemy henchmen and ninjas. Reaching the end of each level will find you battling it out with a boss. These range from 8ft tall giants to helicopter gunships.
Game:
Shinobi

Genres:
Action
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.8

Published on 8/31/2023
The Gun Shooting 2 is a Light Gun title developed for the PlayStation by Amusement & Multimedia Studio. The game has short minigames which need to be complete similar to the Point Blank franchise.
Watch as Darkman425 completes the Story Mode in record time.

Published on 12/9/2022
Puzzle & Action: Nido aru koto wa Sand-R (2度あることはサンドア~ル), known as Puzzle & Action: Treasure Hunt overseas, is an arcade game that was developed for the Sega Titan Video arcade machine and was later ported to the Sega Saturn. Two treasure hunters managed to find themselves a large treasure chest, but a band of thieves suddenly steal it from them and split it amongst themselves. The treasure hunters must now travel the world to find these thieves and get their treasure back by completing a series of minigames, some of which appear to be highly anachronistic to say the least.
Darkman425 decides to play the game using two players and uses copious amounts of RNG manipulation in order to beat a number of minigames in record time and the whole game as fast as possible. For more details, you can read the author's notes.

Published on 11/6/2022
Night Striker is a third-person shoot 'em up developed for the arcades by Taito. Taking place in a cyberpunk world in 2049, a terrorist organization had kidnapped Doctor Masker Lindberry and his daughter, and it's up to you, as part of the United Nations Special Service Agency, to lead task force Night Striker and take down the terrorist organization and rescue Masker Lindberry and his daughter.
In this run, Darkman425 decides to take a more scenic route, showing off as many of the unique bosses the game can offer, and dodges everything that wants to destroy him while only destroying the bosses that are required in order to proceed. Unique to the Sega CD version of the game is a special arrangement of remixes of the original songs, which are chosen and played here for additional entertainment.

Published on 10/20/2022
Wonder Boy is an arcade game developed by Sega that serves as a sort of precursor to the Adventure Island series. You play as a tribal jungle boy known as Wonder Boy, who must rescue his girlfriend Tina from a dark king with his trusty hatchet and skateboard. It has received ports to the Sega SG-1000 and Master System, the former essentially receiving a remade game due to system limitations and lacking items such as the skateboard.
In this run, Darkman425 plays the SG-1000 version to completion as fast as possible.
Game:
Wonder Boy

Genres:
Platformer
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.8

Published on 4/14/2022
It's the year 33XXX, and aliens have stolen Olivia Run's Sega Master System, and she wants it back. Oh, and they also killed her boyfriend and emptied her fridge. That is the plot of Galactic Revenge, a homebrew platformer that plays similarly to Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
Watch as Darkman425 jumps across conveyor belts, deftly takes care of any robots and aliens he sees, and trades life points for more speed in order to beat the game in record time.
You can download a ROM of the game here.

Published on 8/2/2023
My QLDC Level is a Super Mario World rom hack created for the 2023 "Questionable Level Design Contest" on SMW Central. One of the submissions to this contest was titled "My QLDC Level", created by Faro and MM102, which won first place in the contest. This hack only contains one level, but the journey to get to the level is the real challange, as Mario has to make his way through the over-world map while avoiding enemies as well as solving puzzles. Was the journey to the level worth it?
If the efforts of EnderOnryo, Tuffcracker, and Darkman425 are anything to go by, it looks like it. Their combined work manages to save 18 seconds over the previous run thanks to new strategies and optimizations, including ending input earlier by not playing through the final level.
Game Version:
18.sfc
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.9.1

Published on 10/19/2023
Super Mario Star Seeker Adventure is a Super Mario World ROM hack that was made for the 2023 Questionable Level Design Contest and placed in the Top 10 best submissions list. It was designed to resemble the Mario fangames that were made on the Flash platform in the early-to-mid-2000s, with all the questionable gameplay mechanics that came with them. You can find platforms that don't move Mario when they move, Switch Blocks that work half the time, and wonky jumps. You also get cheap-looking animations and transitions and random music from other video games, all in one package.
Darkman425 decides to complete all 60 levels in the romhack as fast as possible, all while not using CamStudio.

Published on 3/28/2024
The 12th Annual Vanilla Level Design Contest: Collaboration Hack is a compilation ROM hack of Super Mario World featuring all 127 entries of said contest as well as 4 switch palaces. The entries are organised into general themes on the overworld. The entrants were tasked to make the best level they can make in a given timeframe whilst not using any custom graphics or ASM, making for a varied experience throughout. It can be downloaded on SMW Central.
Darkman425 completes every exit, but also collects every single Dragon Coin and 3-Up Moon that are spread throughout the various levels. Please read the author's comments for more details.

Published on 6/21/2023
Stop the Express, also known in Japan as Bousou Tokkyuu SOS (暴走特急SOS), is an early platforming game that was initially developed by Hudson Soft for the Sharp X1 and later ported to the MSX, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum. It was later completely remade by the same company for the Famicom under the name Challenger. In this game, a train gang has taken over a passenger train, and it's up to you to get to the engine of the train and stop it before the train gang gets the train to a mysterious location. On your way to the train engine, you must evade gangsters that will try to gun you down and snake birds and ghosts that are out to get you for some inexplicable reason.
In this run, Darkman425 completes a single loop of the game and stops the express in record time.
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.9.1


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